The Fall of Taryd
by Neodammarung the Destroyer
Summary: A oneshot based on the Necris Invasion cutscene from UT3
1. Chapter 1

**The Fall of Taryd**

Part I

Taryd: the galactic fruit basket of mineral wealth. Taryd: the gold mine of vital resources. Taryd: the planet whose name is synonymous with conflict and greed, for it is here that the three mighty corporate 'nations' of Izanagi, Liandri and Axon…squabble. Like vultures they peck and fight over the planet's vast quantities of Tarydium, the mineral life-blood of humanity's fledgling empire.

In the recent months, the forces of Izanagi have made unprecedented surgical strikes against the strongholds of Axon and Liandri, leaving both reeling in shock and awe. Most citizens on this inherently chaotic planet, where corporate holdings define the lines between the three 'nations', see it as nothing more than an increase in greed on Izanagi's part, a simple matter of want and need, and, in many cases, they would be right.

However…there is, in fact, a second objective to these new attacks and seizures…because there is another force seeking to dominate Taryd and control its wealth, one which has already made its intentions clear by sending armies of alien Krall mercenaries to attack Taryd and the surrounding colonies during this most recent crisis. It is the fourth corporation, the Phayder Corporation…and from its barren, dusty home world of Omicron III, it has stared out hungrily at the riches of Taryd and known a terrible desire for power, one that has driven it to its current actions.

The four mega-corporations of the Milky Way each specialize in a particular field of goods and services. Liandri is, first and foremost, a heaving mining combine, with holdings across the galaxy and most important of all, legions upon legions of robotic servants which operate most of their mines. Axon is a techno-research firm with long-lasting contracts binding them to the New Earth Government which rules humanity and its colonies. They produce thousands of weapons and vehicles, plus a variety of other military goods every year. Izanagi is into everything that makes money, having its corporate principles based on the ancient Japanese art of Kereitsu. They have roots in everything from pharmaceuticals and food to construction and industrial machinery.

Phayder is the master of nanotechnology, micro-machinery that operates on the scale of a billionth of a meter. Such technology has revolutionized medicine, but Phayder has used it for far, far more. Their experiments with alien substance called 'nanoblack', which was the basis for their success in their chosen field, eventually led to the creation of the Necris, a race of warriors revived from death by the nanoblack's regenerative properties and filled with a twisted religious vigor which has more or less become the governing force behind the corporation. The Necris now rule Omicron 3, and, despite a weak frontage to the contrary, the Phayder Corporation as well. For this reason, Omicron 3 is now a nanoblack-corrupted wasteland of a world. The sinister substance has entered everything from the oceans to the plant-life and serves as the very building blocks from which the Necris grow, not build, their cities and palaces.

For decades now, since the Necris takeover, the Phayder Corporation has become more and more secretive, withdrawing from the greedy inter-corporate judicial battles and squabbles until the galaxy has virtually forgotten about them. Their territorial borders have been closed for over thirty years and nothing except the occasional warrior seeking fortune in Liandri's galactic blood sports has issued from them. Lately though, supply convoys passing alongside their border have gone missing and rumor has spread that Krall privateers have been seen entering and leaving their space.

Izanagi knows this and is not a company to lie still while a competitor is building a war machine for the sole purpose of extracting all their wealth with a plasma cannon. For this reason, they have mobilized their sizable forces on Taryd to overpower their current competitors and force them to form a united front, one they will hope will scare the Necris into backing off or making an unprepared first strike. Since their victory over Liandri and Axon however, Izanagi has not heard a single thing from their looming foe. Unnerved and deeply worried, Izanagi has warned its soldiers to be on guard for the inevitable response…


	2. Chapter 2

**The Fall of Taryd**

Part II

The day in the forested regions surrounding the Izanagi's capital of Tokaido started like any other. The replica Japanese forts and buildings of Izanagi's military were alive with patrols and the coming and going of supplies. In the city itself, night shift workers at the offices and other white-collar jobs were leaving for home while the day shift was preparing to leave.

Far from the city itself, on the planet's polar frontier, the same exchange of responsibility was occurring for the guards of the Takahashi Tarydium Mine. For a short period the energy-cannon turrets and patrols were out of action before quickly being remanned and replaced as the 'day' shift took over, so-named because that was how the corporation wanted it. It didn't matter that in a winter like this one, the sun didn't show at all in the far northern reaches the mine was built in. Deep below, semi-automated digging machines rumbled away, heedless of the concerns of their organic operators.

High, high above all this, the space stations and Jump-Gates of Taryd were, as always, alive with activity as huge freighters bearing the wealth of the planet's refineries, factories and mines departed and arrived on a schedule governed by the flow of the economy itself.

In the control room of one of the Jump-Gate stations, where business was unusually slow today, a man, known to his friends as 'Kell' and on the station payroll as Joseph K. Netts, was slacking off, monitoring his station with only moderate regularity while chatting with a colleague next to him.

"Look, I don't know what to think. You can't believe half the stuff they put out on the TV these days, but to tell you the truth, I think this whole war is just a grab-rush like always. I mean, sure there was that Krall attack, but if they were being paid and supplied by someone, wouldn't we know about it?" he said nonchalantly to his partner, "I mean, seriously, to purchase the number of weapons and vehicles they had would cost so much money it would be impossible to hide! It would show up in the account of whatever company was paid to produce the stuff!". His comrade shrugged.

"If you say so," his fellow station-operator said, paying more attention to his console than his friend was, "but my buddy in the Terran Colonial Authority says that Izanagi's got some ulterior motive. To tell you the truth, I'm inclined to agree with him. I looked up the history of Taryd, and even during the Corporation Wars, none of the companies ever pulled something as widespread as thi-". He paused. His partner looked expectant

"Huh, that's weird." he said, concern etching his face.

"What, what is it?" his less attentive friend said, turning back to his console and looking over its brightly lit displays. Then he stopped and stared at the new window that had popped open on his console.

"You're right, that is weird." He replied, quickly manipulating the touch-reactive surface of the station.

"The Jump-Gate's powering up. It looks like it's prepping for something big to come through. We don't have any arrivals, do we?".

"I don't think so. Let me check…no, nothing for the next five hours. Think we should alert the-". He never finished the question, because at that moment, the Jump-Gate activated, ripping open a shortcut through the fabric of reality that manifested as a nebulous, swirling blue vortex of power, from which emerged the death sentence of Taryd and all upon it. Joseph K. Netts, his unfortunate friend and the entire Control Room of the gate ceased to exist several seconds later as a flurry of missiles tore into the structure, gutting it.

Far below, blissfully unaware of the quickly gathering storm in orbit, life continued. In the forests about the city of Tokaido, soldiers were puzzled as their radios began to give out on them. Soon the unusual effect spread to the city, then, very shortly later, far beyond it. Five minutes later, every wireless communication system on Taryd had been rendered non-functional.

Above the Nakatomi River base, an Izanagi military installation, the skies began to darken. Two soldiers, returning from night patrol and chatting as they approached the cover of the replica Japanese pagoda-esque structures that made up the base, turned and looked up. As the wind began to howl, three, swirling dark hurricane-like vortexes with eyes as black as night formed overhead, cutting through the already heavy overcast. Then, like a slow-motion nightmare, the first assault was unleashed. Each vortex ejected a long writhing black cable, almost like a tentacle, each of which snaked through the heavens, then plunged, tip-first into the ground around the base. One nearly crushed the two soldiers as they fled, slamming down where they had stood moments before fleeing the oncoming tendril.

Meanwhile, above Tokaido, more holes in the sky were opening, before they too released their long black snaking members, which plunged down indiscriminately, crushing vehicles and people alike. Some smashed straight through buildings, ripping masonry free and showering those below with debris. Across the planet, over every major landmark, be it a city or a mine or just a key military base, the pattern was repeated. Soon, the black tendrils had touched down on every continent and in every city…but it was just the beginning.

As the military forces of Tokaido reeled, trying to regain their composure and organize, the cloud filled-sky released the second wave. Dozens of black, gleaming, crucifix-shaped craft, dragged through the sky by undulating quartets of ebony tentacles, screamed out of the heavens with a hideous buzzing sound and opened fire. A trio of them grouped together and roared down the main street, plasma blasts spitting from the tips of their appendages indiscriminately. Fireballs burst from the buildings they impacted and windows shattered as the craft broke shrieked past. One fired a bolt into the midsection of a towering office block which belched flame from its sides as its remaining upper stories, liberated from the hold of the internal steel girders, tilted forward with a groan of concrete and metal, then crashed down into the road, scattering rubble, glass and bodies everywhere.

As the attack craft sped onwards, silver, fishlike drop-ships thundered down behind them, bearing the bane of the ground forces still left living after the sudden air strike. Each touched down for only a few moments, but as they rose again, death rose with them. Massive assault platforms, tripedal, tentacle-borne death machines with glowing plasma beam projectors and three-sixty degrees pulse cannons, rose from the dust clouds where the ships had landed, brought their huge, hammerhead shaped optical sensor arrays to bear on the screaming masses below…and fired. Reddish-orange lances of death emerged from the war-machines' primary guns, burning molten trenches in the street as they raked them back and forth across the crashing cars and wailing civilians. For those trapped in the tripods' line of fire, it seemed as though the apocalypse itself was upon them at last.

In the furthest polar regions of Taryd, the Takahashi Mine was under attack as well. Over the eastern ridge that bordered the complex came more death-tripods, followed by dozens of what could only be called tanks, hovering on caterpillar-like armatures which extended from either side of their main chassis while their top-mounted dual plasma-guns glowed with barely repressed power. From between these vehicles charged humanoid figures, clad in black, chitinous armor with leg-mounted impact-absorption armatures. The carried Shock Rifles, lighting their approach in the arctic gloom with moving lines of purple. It didn't matter that this exposed them to snipers, because their armored support vehicles opened fire seconds later, hurling javelins of red energy down on the bases' defenses. The soldiers rushed onwards, raising their deadly weapons and unloading shimmering purple-white-black Shock Cores into the now retreating red-clad Izanagi warriors with inhuman accuracy and a commendable lack of mercy. As their massive vehicles breached the perimeter, air support in the form of more crucifix-shaped attack craft arrived, diving in and out of the huge arches and rock formations that lined the mine's west flank. As the approached, they fired on the large Tarydium refinery waste storage tanks that stood undefended on the west side of the base, causing huge explosions as their volatile cargo was ignited by superheated plasma.

The Nakatomi River Base was falling. Unable to regroup under the relentless assault and the withering fire of the death-tripods, the Izanagi soldiers were being cut down by black-clad soldiers as they fled, yelling and screaming into the forest. Above the scene, two three-legged Darkwalkers strode triumphant, their guns pulsing with fire. One rotated its upper section to face the base and fired its primary weapons into the open doors of the armory within. There was a cataclysmic blast and columns of smoke and fire erupted from the doors of the structure, hurling soldiers bodily twenty to thirty feet away. Its partner began to stalk into the forest, burning down trees to clear a path for the pursuit of its fleeing prey. The air was filled with the screams of the dying and the roar of pulse fire. Nanoblack and blood seeped into the ground. Only death remained.

The Necris had arrived.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Fall of Taryd**

Part III

Far above the carnage, the blood and the merciless slaughter, the black vessels of Phayder hovered like bloated spiders, long tendrils connecting them to the burning cites below. Around them, the defensive space forces of the other corporations were engaging them in a brutal, but ultimately fruitless and pointless battle.

In the inner command center of the Necris Flagship, the High Inquisitors of the invasion force, its most lethal warriors and most powerful leaders, were gathered to witness this glorious event. They sat in a semi-circle and looked out of the great observation port before them, watching as one after another, the lights of the mighty megacities of Taryd went out, one by one. Above them, on a balcony that overlooked the chamber as a pulpit overlooks the sinners, stood their leader, Akasha, the most ruthless of them all. As another tendril descended above another cluster of lights below, she smiled a vampire's smile.

"The cities are dying. The holy blackness is spreading. Soon all shall know the Prophet's embrace." She said, her voice echoing around the chamber. As one the gathered Inquisitors replied.

"HALLOWED IS THE BLACKNESS." They said…and Akasha's smile widened.

Below, in the shattered slum-like streets of Liandri's vast capital, the infection was advancing. The massive tendrils were sprouting growths that were drilling through the surrounding buildings like roots. Overhead, a faint blue light was penetrating the darkness that gripped the city. Rain poured down on the city, and more specifically, on a small courtyard in the residential slums. Around its sides, Necris tentacles wound their way into the concrete and metal of the broken buildings.

In its center, looking up with awe and shock was Izanagi's hire military commander, Malcolm. Slowly he looked around at the devastation, the white-blue haze of light making his African-American skin appear faded and corpse-white. There was a splashing as his current companion stamped out of the shadows and into the light before circling around him. His name was James Hawkins a.k.a. 'Reaper'. He had been the leader of many of the surgical strikes used to subdue Axon and Liandri, and right now the look on his face was pure poison. He raised his left hand to gesture at the destruction around him, the other clutching the grip of his huge, tri-barreled Axon-built rocket launcher. He stared with rage at Malcolm as he walked slowly through the rain.

"This isn't war. This is slaughter." He said coldly to his superior officer, still circling him, "You call this 'calculated losses', 'collateral damage'?".

"We didn't think they'd move this quick…attack every front!" Malcolm said defensively. Reaper's eyes filled with a fire that few had witnessed and lived to speak of.

"YOU WANTED THEM TO BREAK THE RULES! START AN OPEN WAR!" He roared, before simmering down and saying quietly with disdain: "Well take a look around…you got your wish.". His circling slowed. Malcolm looked him in the eyes.

"They came too fast. We didn't provoke this!" he said slowly. He looked back up at the fallen buildings and pulsating infection tubules.

"They must've been plannin' for years!" he muttered as the downpour increased. Reaper finally moved to stand next to him.

"Yeah, you blew it." He growled angrily. Then he turned to face the destruction as well and brought the rocket launcher up to his chest and seizing the front with his other hand.

"Only one thing to do now…" he said, the weapon quietly humming to life in his grasp. His face took on the hardened expression he always had just before battle. Beyond the courtyard the city was burning and its citizens dying.

"Let's kick some Necris ass."


End file.
